Massachusetts

On Monday morning we reported that dozens of books dealing with LGBT subject matter, were vandalized at a Harvard library with what appeared to be urine. But now the college has announced the damaged books were the result of an “accident,” and not a suspected hate crime as University police originally suspected.

At least 40 books at a Harvard University library dealing with LGBT subject matter have been vandalized with what appeared to be urine, and University police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

On the last possible day they could do so, the Obama administration filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in support of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, even though Obama has previously said he opposed the law.

The athletic director and dean of students at a Catholic high school in Springfield, MA lost her job last week, saying she was pressured to leave after marrying her female partner in August.

A Boston man was found guilty Friday of murdering a popular hairstylist he met at a gay bar in 2008 and was immediately sent to prison for life without parole. Following six days of deliberations, the jury ruled that Steven Odegard, 42, stabbed Daniel Yakovleff, 20, over a dozen times with a foot-long chef’s knife. […]

A Republican political hopeful interested in serving as governor of Massachusetts announced Monday he has chosen Richard R. Tisei, an openly gay state legislator, to be his running mate in the 2010 gubernatorial election, reports CBS News. “Want you to be the first to know: I’ve chosen State Senator Richard Tisei as my running mate,” […]

MSNBC. Though the Obama administration calls the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) discriminatory, the Justice Department nonetheless is defending the law in a court filing today in Massachusetts. The state has challenged the law, which denies federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples who are nonetheless legally married under state law. Massachusetts officials say the […]

BOSTON — Justice Department lawyers are reluctantly defending the federal law that prevents recognition of same-sex marriages, making their legal arguments in a Boston court while pointing out that the Obama administration opposes the measure, the Boston Globe reports. On Friday, Justice attorneys asked a federal judge in Boston to dismiss a lawsuit that claims […]

It’s been five years since Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage, and as Rachel Maddow points out, despite all the fear, the sky didn’t fall. In fact, divorce rates are down to pre-1940’s level, and Massachusetts now boasts the lowest divorce rates in the country. From Thursday night’s broadcast of the Rachel […]